dark mountain issue 11 spring 2017

The eleventh book of uncivilised writing and artwork is published in turbulent times. Following the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump, voices from across the political spectrum have loudly called time on liberalism, the post-1945 international consensus and the era of globalisation. Yet beyond the political-cultural bubble, the cogs of the machine keep whirling much the same. The mountains are still being levelled for mines, the bottom-of-the-barrel scrabble to prop up fossil fuel economies continues with tar sands and fracking, and – despite nativist posturing to the contrary – extractive globalisation proceeds apace, driven by the seemingly unstoppable logic of consumption.

Dark Mountain: Issue 11 takes as its premise the notion of endings – cultural, social, ecological, political existential – but recognises that things seldom end, or begin, in well-mannered ways. The work you will find in these pages explores the liminal territory between simplistic poles; an untidy realm in which some worlds appear to be ending completely, some partially, some not at all, and in which entirely new beginnings emerge from the cracks in between.

This issue features writing from Charlotte McGuinn Freeman, Tim Fox, Alastair McIntosh, Sarah Thomas, Daniel Nakanishi-Chalwin, John Rember, Mat Miles, Sophie McKeand, Andrew Boyd, Nick Hunt, Steve Wheeler, Charlotte Du Cann and Martin Shaw, Darren Allen, Brendan Byrne, Anne Haven McDonald, Mat Joiner, Matt Leivers, Matt Dubuque, the Confraternity of Neoflagellants, Francesca Schmit, Roseanne Watt, AH Dehany, Albert Vetere Lannon, Gram Joel Davies, Damian Van Denburgh, Leonie van der Plas, Tina Carlson, Rachel Economy, Eleanor Hooker, Jane Lovell, Daniel Marrone, Ben Mylius, Hal Niedzviecki, Nina Pick, Elizabeth Rimmer, Stinne Storm and Antony Johae.

As with all Dark Mountain publications, we’ve given a lot of attention the book as a physical object. It’s designed and typeset by our friends at Bracketpress in Lancashire and features printed illustrations and colour plates with artwork by Christos Galanis, Tanja Leonardt, Michael Pijpe, Caroline Ross, Constantin Schlachter, Mairead Dunne, Daro Montag, Lucy Kerr, Katie Craney, Tom Pazderka and Garry Williams.

This issue’s cover is from the artwork ‘Pink Figure, Blue World’ by Will Gill, made during an artist’s residency in Svalbard, Norway.

The editors for this issue were Cate Chapman, Nick Hunt, Mat Osmond and Steve Wheeler.